The Changing Property Tax and State-Local Relations

The substantial transfer of fiscal power to state government, undermining local government autonomy, characterizes the course of state-local relations in the last quarter of the twentieth century in the United States. Central to this shift is diminished local control of the property tax, a result of the tax limitations adopted in most states since the 1970s. This article argues that control of the property tax is critical to the workings of local representative democracy, affecting both the discretion of elected officials and participation of citizens. It presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the centralization trend, including changes in property-tax flows and state finances affecting local governments, an analysis of the comparative severity of property-tax limitations, changes in K-12 education financing, and local consequences of the tax limitations.